Episode 4: Emmeline Pankhurst's statue in Manchester, United Kingdom

Four  guests for our fourth episode! Sculptor ⁠Hazel Reeves⁠ is back to discuss her award-winning statue of Emmline Pankhurst, founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union in Manchester in 1903, with Manchester City ⁠Councillor Andrew Simcock⁠, ⁠Professor Helen Pankhurst⁠ and ⁠Dr Helen Antrobus⁠ (briefly accompanied in the background by her infant daughter, whose views, if not entirely clear, are certainly forcefully expressed :)).Useful links about things discussedThe Statue: you can read a brief entry on the statue on our crowd-sourced map here. Emmeline in London: A black and white newsreel of the unveiling of the statue erected to Emmeline Pankhurst in London in 1930 is visible ⁠here⁠. Emmeline and Manchester: We discussed what might have caused the rekindling of the connection between Manchester and the Pankhurst family from the 1970s. Helen Pankhurst suggested that this may have been due in part to the success of the hit BBC show Shoulder to Shoulder, which is accessible here⁠ (and elsewhere if you are not in the UK, but we don’t have good lawyers so you’ll have to find them yourselves :)) and may well have contributed to the desire to save 62 Nelson Street, the Pankhursts' home, from destruction, leading to its transformation into the Pankhurst centre, the website of which is ⁠here⁠.WoManchester: Andrew and Helen Antrobus’s highly readable book about both the WoManchester campaign and the twenty women on the long list can be purchased ⁠here⁠. You can also watch the unveiling ceremony in full ⁠here⁠.Hazel’s Next Project: Please spread the word and, if you can, contribute to the campaign for Hazel’s next site of feminist memory (fingers crossed!): a statue to Ada Nield Chew in Crew. The campaign's website can be found ⁠here⁠.Essential readingLaura E. Nym Mayhall. (1999). “Domesticating Emmeline: Representing the Suffragette, 1930-1993”. NWSA Journal, 11(2), 1–24 (accessible here by creating a free account on JStor or using your institution's subscription)ErrataAndrew mentions his visit to the "Ellen Wilkinson Museum" in Gateshead during his bicycle ride to raise awareness about the WoManchester campaign. This is in fact the South Shields Museum, which had organised an exhibition to mark the 80th anniversary of the Jarrow Crusade, the page of which is accessible ⁠here⁠.About UsBronze Ceiling is the podcast series of HerStory Maps, a citizen-science project aiming to map the sites of feminist memory everywhere in the world. The current map is ⁠here⁠ but a much more user-friendly and content rich one (including these podcasts, as well as videos, a serious game and maybe even guided audio tours) will be going live in March 2027 (at the latest)!If you would like to get in touch, please email us at: [email protected] InformationDate of recording: 13 May 2026Host: Marc Calvini-LefebvreResearch: Blanche Plaquevent and Marc Calvini-LefebvreSound: Elias MouktafiEditing: Marc Calvini-Lefebvre